BATTLEFORDS — Leadership from the Battlefords Regional Community Coalition (BRCC) have identified several regional emergency management challenges, according to a press release.
Chiefs from the BRCC’s member First Nations (Little Pine, Lucky Man, Moosomin, Saulteaux and Sweetgrass) identified concerns regarding jurisdictional conflicts and poor co-ordination with respect to emergency services. Together with the mayors of the BRCC’s member municipalities (Battleford and North Battleford), the BRCC’s leadership have directed the project team to advance work on these challenges., the release states.
In response to these concerns, the BRCC has announced it is co-ordinating an emergency management initiative in the region. This initiative involves the implementation of two emergency management tools to co-ordinate services effectively in response to future regional-scale emergencies: namely, a regional emergency response plan and software for a virtual emergency operations centre.
In early spring 2022, the BRCC partnered with the City of North Battleford, town of Battleford and RM of North Battleford in a successful funding application to Saskatchewan Targeted Sector Support (TSS) initiative. The city made the application for the funding, and the collective committee were successful recipients. This funding will be used to hire a consultant to develop a regional-scale emergency response plan. This plan will tie together local emergency plans from regional First Nations and municipalities into a protocols for responding to emergencies that exceed the response capabilities of any single community. The regional planning component has been contracted with PMO Global Services.
TSS funding will also support the acquisition of virtual emergency operations centre (EOC) software, as well as training for emergency staff to use this software. An EOC is used to co-ordinate response services and provide clear, consistent lines of communication to facilitate the implementation of emergency plans. Acquisition of this software is expected to proceed later this year.
